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Wait I can get away with only 15 minutes a day??

How much should the average person exercise each day in order to stay healthy? 60 minutes right? I found three articles that argue different prognosis's. The first article from the Hear t Health Center talks about how assuming people can exercise for an hour is a joke and that a simple 20 minutes will do the trick. You may not be shedding pounds left and right but you will be doing your cardiovascular health a huge favor. The second article from ABC news argues a similar time although it gives profound results. ABC tested 400,000 study participants in a 12 year span and found that if you work out just 15 MINUTES A DAY you can increase your life expectancy by three years...how they found this statistic with all the other factors that play into health , I have no idea, but for the sake of my argument I'll take it. Lastly, my third link by Cardiff University Sports says at least 30 minutes a day is enough to maintain cardiovascular health. Cardiff's points out that working out doesn't have to mean bench pressing or even going for a 30 minute run...it can be something as simple as washing your car, or gardening. Point being, no one truly agrees with an exact time that should be allotted to exercising every day, but all the articles clearly say you should exercise at least 15 per day and the more time you allot, the higher your cardiovascular health will be in turn...DUH. These articles are trustworthy because they all studied heart patients and are from valid sources who have done studies over the years or took data from places who have. A couple possible fallacies this topic can fall under are the bandwagon and not-me fallacy. It is easy to compare oneself to another person and doing so can cause a bandwagon effect of not needing to exercise or just the opposite in the not-me fallacy.

13 Comments

I agree with you, and the articles are good. I believe everyone should exercise, not just to lose weight but to live a healthier life style. People do not want to die earlier because they choose to sit in front of the television. I think some people think exercising for one hour one day is good, but it is not. People should exercise in the same time limits everyday.

As a person who enjoys exercising on a daily basis, I found this article interesting. People have different exercise needs depending on family history, age, weight, etc but it was interesting to me that each source offered a different recommended time and claimed different results. Perhaps looking further into the research of each study would provide insights as to why they differ.

Interesting articles you posted. I was never under the impression that one had to exercise for 60 minutes straight to lead a healthy lifestyle, however. I do agree with your sources, which say that only 15 minutes of semi-vigorous activity can boost your life by years, both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Exercise releases natural endorphins in our body, which are otherwise gained naturally through food, for example. Natural endorphins + a healthy heart + slim waistline will lead to a happy and long life.

Interesting articles you posted. I was never under the impression that one had to exercise for 60 minutes straight to lead a healthy lifestyle, however. I do agree with your sources, which say that only 15 minutes of semi-vigorous activity can boost your life by years, both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Exercise releases natural endorphins in our body, which are otherwise gained naturally through food, for example. Natural endorphins + a healthy heart + slim waistline will lead to a happy and long life.

Although this is a well written argument and overall article, one thing that has always annoyed me about exercise and health in general is that doctors can just assume that something that is good for one person is good for everyone. Just because a simple 15 minutes of exercise a day for someone might either a.) be way too much for someone who can't handle that much exertion or b.) not nearly enough for someone that is desensitized to this kind of physical exertion.

Secondly, I'm not so shocked about the 15 minutes a day thing because I've heard it before. Heck, I've even heard 10 min/day! But I do agree with you that it's fishy as to how they found that statistic with all the other factors that they failed to tell us about such as what the participants were eating and which participants failed to increase their life expectancy.

Even so, I still believe that a good 10-20 minutes a day should do. Heck, maybe even every other day. It all depends on how you eat too. If your an unhealthy eater then you should probably exercise more, and vice versa.

I have conflicting feelings about the idea that 15 minutes of exercise a day is all you need. On one hand, that might actually be true but we are so used to taking shortcuts within our lives that I think that essentially promoting the idea of minimal exercise isn't the best way to go. People need to learn that they need to make commitments to themselves and hold themselves accountable. If someone wants to commit to 15 minutes of exercise a day that's great but they need to actually follow through. The problem that I have with the 15 minutes is that when you miss a 'day', or your 15 minutes of exercise for that day, it's too easy to just say "Oh, it's alright. I just missed 15 minutes of exercise, I'll make it up tomorrow." Then a negative pattern develops. The important thing to remember is just to stay active, make and hold commitments to yourself, and not to make excuses.

The picture really catchs my eyes. It's good. In my opinion, I do agree that we need to do ecercise everyday. Although I believe many people will say that 15 minutes a day is not enough, I still think it is the minimum. However, if we do spend 15minutes a day, we can have a healthier life. It is easy to do exercise for 15 minutes one day, but it is not easy for people continue doing it everyday.

When somebody thinks about how much they should work out, it depends on their mindset. For somebody who hates working out but knows they should, they'll probably do the absolute minimum of 15 minutes a day. On the other hand, somebody who is determined to get healthy and even lose weight will accept the suggestions of working out for an hour a day. All in all, its about how you view working out. Exercising is essential for everyone every single day. That is something you cannot change.

I would have to agree with the fact that people should exercise at least 15 minutes a day to live a better life style. But if they want to continue to say get into better shape, they should maybe increase the time of their work out and the intensity. Instead of 15 minutes every day, they could do 30 minutes every other day of vigorous exercise.

You pointed out something interesting that you often see in research--conflicting results. There are a number of possible reasons why we find differing results including:different sample sizes, experimenter bias, confirmatory biases, research methods, etc. As a result, it is very important to consider the source of the information and also the quality of the study. It is also necessary to read multiple studies in order to get a bigger picture, and decide how you want to personally interpret those results.

Long story short, research isn't always perfect so it is worth it to see what different authors have to say. Thanks for the link to the articles!

I enjoyed reading your blog post, although I would have to disagree with the results of the studies you mentioned in your article. I think that these articles are assuming that people engage in no physical activity whatsoever throughout the day. The article counted gardening or washing your car as 15 minutes per day of exercise. Considering the normal American is very overweight and eats a very unhealthy diet, 15 minutes of exercise is not enough to maintain good cardiovascular health, strength, or flexibility. I think all this article is really saying is that 15 minutes per day is better than not exercising at all. However, if a person really watches what they consume and eats a healthy diet, then perhaps exercising for as little as 15 minutes per day really can lead to increased cardiovascular health.

I couldn't agree more with you. People who avoid exercising do so because they think they would have to start running 5k's right away to achieve there desired results. However, even if they start off with parking the car further away from a Wallmart store or taking the stairs instead of an elevator are all great starts. Moreover, they can build endurance by starting with 15 minutes walk and progress to 30 minute runs. In fact, they don't even need to run, even brisk walking (or any other form or cardio activity) can reduce the risk of heart diseases or diabetes.